1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a textile supply package for feeding a plurality of elastomeric strands to a machine for making fabrics, covered yarns or the like. More particularly, the invention concerns such a package which comprises a bundle of elastomeric strands around which is sewn a connected series of chain stitches.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In most weaving, knitting or yarn-covering operations, large numbers of strands are fed simultaneously to a textile machine. Usually, the strands are supplied from a creel frame on which numerous yarn packages are mounted. Each package contains one wound-up strand. Another conventional method involves supplying the fabric-making machine with a multiplicity of strands from one large beam. These known strand supply devices usually are very large and require much floor space. To reduce these space requirements, suggestions have been made that the required number of strands be supplied in the form of a knitted package from which the strands can be unravelled and fed to the fabric-making machine. Rupprecht, U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,261 discloses one such knit package made of spandex strands. However, the speed with which packages of spandex yarns can be fabricated is limited by the slow speed of the knitting machines on which the packages must be made. The slow speeds of fabrication add to the cost of the unravellable package, as well as to the cost of the fabrics made therefrom.
It is also known to supply strands of slitted rubber in the form of a package wherein the strands have been readhered to each other and then dusted with talc. However, this method is not generally applicable to other elastomeric yarns.